Starting BJJ: What to Expect at Your First Class

If you've never trained Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu before, walking into a BJJ gym for the first time can be intimidating. You probably don't know what you're supposed to wear, you don't know anyone, you don't know what half the words mean, and you may have absolutely no idea what is going to happen once class starts. That's pretty normal.

Every experienced BJJ practitioner was once the person standing outside the room wondering what they had gotten themselves into. You don't need to know how to shrimp, understand what a guard is, know the difference between mount and side control, or have any idea what “rolling” means. You're coming to class to learn those things.

So if you're thinking about trying BJJ for the first time, here's what you can realistically expect.

What Should I Wear to My First BJJ Class?

You don't need to buy a bunch of expensive BJJ equipment before you've ever taken a class. For your first class at BLAST, a T-shirt and athletic shorts are perfectly fine.

Wear something comfortable that allows you to move. Avoid clothing with zippers, buttons or anything else that could dig into you or your training partner. If you decide you like BJJ and want to continue training, you can worry about getting a gi or no-gi training clothes later.

The important thing is to show up clean, with trimmed fingernails and toenails, and ready to train. Good hygiene isn't optional in a grappling sport. You're going to be in very close contact with other people, so taking a shower, wearing clean training clothes and keeping your nails short are basic considerations for everyone in the room.

Do I Need to Be in Shape Before I Start BJJ?

You do not need to get in shape before you start BJJ. Getting in better shape is one of the reasons many people start training in the first place.

You should expect to get tired, though. BJJ is physically demanding, particularly when you're new. You don't yet know how to move efficiently, you're going to tense muscles that don't need to be tense, and you'll probably spend a lot of time working harder than necessary because you haven't learned how to relax and conserve energy.

That's part of the learning process.

You don't need to be an athlete. You don't need to be skinny. You don't need to be strong. You don't need to be able to run five miles or do fifty push-ups. You need enough physical ability to participate safely, the willingness to listen and the willingness to keep showing up.

Fitness will improve as you train.

What Happens When I Get to Class?

You'll meet the coach and get introduced to the people in the room. If you've never trained before, we'll know that and we'll take that into account.

You'll spend some time warming up and getting your body moving. You may learn some basic movements that will become familiar as you continue training. Things like bridging, shrimping, technical stand-ups and other fundamental movements may feel awkward at first. That's okay. Nobody expects you to already know how to do them.

From there, you'll learn a technique or a small group of related skills. We aren't trying to give you twenty things to remember in your first hour. The goal is to introduce you to a piece of BJJ, explain what you're trying to accomplish and give you an opportunity to practice it.

You'll work with a partner, and this is usually where BJJ starts to make a little more sense.

What Is My Training Partner Going to Do to Me?

Probably less than you're imagining.

If you're brand new, you won't not be "thrown to the wolves" and expected to figure everything out while an experienced person tries to submit you as quickly as possible. A good training partner understands that their job is to help you learn.

That doesn't mean they'll simply let you do everything. BJJ requires resistance. At some point you need to experience what happens when another person doesn't cooperate. But resistance should be appropriate to the situation.

One of the things I value most about a good BJJ room is that people can be competitive while still being generous training partners. You can want to beat your partner and still want them to get better. In fact, the best training partners I've had were extremely competitive. They wanted to beat me, I wanted to beat them, and we both understood that the purpose of training was to make each other better.

As a beginner, your job is to learn how to be that kind of training partner too.

What Is "Rolling"?

You'll probably hear people talk about “rolling.” That's simply the term we commonly use for live BJJ practice.

Instead of being told exactly what to do, you start in a position and try to use what you've learned against someone who is trying to do something different. Eventually, you'll experience the same positions and problems you've been practicing in class, but now the other person isn't cooperating.

That's where BJJ gets really interesting.

You may or may not roll during your first class. That depends on the person, the class and the coach. And if you do roll, don't worry about winning. You are almost certainly going to get submitted.

You're Probably Going to Get Submitted

This is one of the strangest experiences for adults who are new to BJJ. Most adults spend their lives being reasonably competent at the things they do. They're good at their jobs. They know how to drive. They know how to manage their household. They've probably developed some confidence in their ability to solve problems.

Then they walk into a BJJ gym and someone half their size ties them into a knot in about thirty seconds. That's humbling.

Getting submitted doesn't mean you're bad at BJJ. It means the other person knows something you don't know yet. That's exactly why you're there.

Eventually you'll recognize the position you're in. Then you'll recognize what they're trying to do. Eventually you'll stop the first part of the attack. Then you'll escape. Then you'll counter. Progress happens in small pieces, and you often don't notice it until you look back at where you started.

How Many Days a Week Should I Train?

For most beginners, I'd rather see someone train three days a week consistently than train six days a week for three weeks and disappear.

BJJ is a skill, and skill development requires repetition. You need enough exposure to remember what you're learning and enough practice for those movements and decisions to become familiar. But more isn't automatically better. You also need time to recover and enough room in your life to make training sustainable.

If three days a week fits your schedule, train three days a week. If two days is what you can realistically maintain, start with two. The important thing is that you build a habit you can maintain for months and years.

A person who trains three times a week for two years will have accumulated an enormous amount of practice. Someone who trains seven days a week for three weeks and then quits hasn't.

Consistency wins.

How Long Does It Take to Get Good at BJJ?

This is probably the question people want answered most, and unfortunately there isn't a very satisfying answer. It depends on what you mean by “good.”

You should expect to feel completely lost when you start. Then you'll begin recognizing positions. You'll start understanding what people are trying to do. You'll occasionally stop something that used to work every time. Eventually you'll find yourself solving problems that would have completely overwhelmed you when you started.

There isn't a single day when you suddenly become good at BJJ. You just accumulate enough experience that things that used to feel impossible start feeling normal.

How quickly that happens depends on how often you train, how well you practice, your training partners, your physical abilities, your previous experience and a lot of other factors. But the biggest factor you can control is simply continuing to train.

BJJ is a long-term skill. Don't expect to understand it in a few months.

Do I Have to Compete?

No. Competition can be an incredibly valuable part of BJJ. It gives you an opportunity to test your skills against someone you don't know, under rules and conditions that are different from training. It can teach you things about yourself that are difficult to reproduce in the gym. But you don't have to compete to get tremendous value from BJJ.

Some people want to compete. Some people want to earn a black belt. Some people want to stay active, learn a difficult skill and have a challenging hobby. Some people simply want to train because they enjoy it.

All of those are legitimate reasons to train. You don't have to become a competitor for BJJ to be worthwhile.

What If I'm Older?

You're probably not too old.

BJJ is one of the few sports where you can start as an adult and continue developing for decades. You won't necessarily train the same way at 45 that you did at 25, and you probably shouldn't. You have to account for your recovery, your responsibilities and the fact that your body has accumulated some mileage.

You don't have to pretend you're twenty-two to train hard. You just need to train intelligently.

The same basic principle applies whether you're 18 or 48: learn the skills, practice them, develop your physical abilities and gradually expose yourself to more difficult problems.

What Should I Expect After My First Class?

You may leave tired, sweaty, confused and slightly concerned about why you voluntarily allowed another human being to sit on your chest for several minutes.

Your first class isn't supposed to make you good at BJJ. It's supposed to introduce you to the process. The important thing is that you learned something, experienced what it feels like to work with another person, discovered that you can survive being uncomfortable and took the first step toward understanding the sport.

The second class will probably make a little more sense. Then the third.

Eventually you'll walk into the gym and understand what's happening around you. You'll recognize positions. You'll know what people are talking about. You'll have techniques you trust and problems you know how to solve.

That's when BJJ starts becoming really fun.

But you have to get through the part where you're terrible first.

The Hardest Part Is Usually Walking Through the Door

You don't need to know BJJ before you start BJJ. You don't need to be in great shape, and you don't need to know whether you're eventually going to compete, earn a black belt or simply train for the rest of your life.

You just need to start.

Come in wearing a T-shirt and shorts. We'll show you what to do.

You may get tired. You may get confused. You may get submitted. You may discover that your body doesn't do some of the things you thought it could do. That's part of learning.

The goal of your first class isn't to prove that you're good at BJJ.

It's to take the first step toward becoming good at BJJ.